An imaging apparatus for imaging a specimen, which is created by smearing a sample such as blood on a slide glass and performing staining processing, and the like, with a microscope and a camera is conventionally known. An image imaged by the imaging apparatus is used for automatic cell classification, manual cell classification by a user, and the like.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/201082 discloses a specimen image imaging system that performs a series of operations from creating to testing (analyzing) the specimen. The specimen image imaging system creates a specimen of blood with the specimen creating apparatus, transports the specimen to a specimen imaging apparatus (blood image analyzer) with a specimen transporter, images the specimen in the specimen imaging apparatus, and thereafter collects the specimen in a predetermined magazine. The magazine includes a plurality of storage spaces that can store specimens in a horizontal posture so as to be lined in an up-down direction.
The specimen imaging apparatus described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/201082 includes a display section such as a CRT for displaying analysis status, and a storage space of the specimen in the magazine, an ID (sample number) of the specimen stored in the storage space, and an imaged state of the specimen are displayed corresponding to each other on the display section. For example, if the imaging of a certain specimen is not appropriately performed, the display of the sample number of the relevant specimen and the display of “error” for the imaging state are made for the items corresponding to the storage space storing the relevant specimen. Therefore, the user can grasp which storage space of the magazine the error specimen is stored in by looking at the display section.
However, the technology described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/201082 has a possibility that the take-out operation becomes cumbersome since the specimen needs to be taken out from a predetermined storage space in the magazine while checking the display section when retesting the error specimen. Regardless of the imaging state, the specimen is stored in order from the higher-order storage space in the magazine, and thus the error specimen and the normally imaged specimen coexist. Thus, even when attempting to take out the error specimen while looking at the display section, the normal specimen might be taken out by mistake.